Tag Archive | Entertainment

If you’ve got kids, you probably dream of lovely days out as a family. Where everyone is having fun and laughing, learning together and enjoying their day. You see other families having these fairy tale days out where everything is wonderful, and everyone is happy and long for the day that you can do the same. Before we have kids, we imagine that this is what all of our family days out will be like. Lovely and carefree. Then, we have them and start going out together.

We quickly realize that that perfect family day out is nothing but a pipedream and suspect that those families who appear to be having the perfect day are heavily bribing their children.

Family days out are stressful. Sometimes to the point of not being worth it at all. The children whine and moan, even if it’s a destination they have chosen. The food is rubbish, the journey is long and boring, and the entertainment or attraction is never quite how it looks online. By the end of the day, everyone is upset, tired and hungry and you’ve had to deal with 8034 toddler tantrums.

But, does it have to be this way? Is bribery the only way to have a stress-free day out with your family? Surely not. Here are some great tips to reduce all of the stress so you can all enjoy your day.

Plan

Planning your day out in plenty of time gives you a chance to save lots of money, get cheaper transport tickets and prepare an itinerary to make everything as easy as possible. Write lots of lists and make sure you know exactly what you are doing and when. Brief the rest of your party too, and then repeat yourself on the morning of the event.

Don’t Plan

All that said, sometimes it’s best not to plan. When you plan a perfect day out, it often leads to chaos and an immense pressure to have a great time. It can be hard to live up to your expectations. If something comes up and you are free, or you spot something that your family will love last minute, go with it. Sometimes the spontaneous days out with absolutely no preparation and planning are the most fun and the ones that you remember in years to come. Don’t get too hung up on the planning.

Let the Kids Help

When the kids get a little older, they can resent being dragged around with their parents and younger siblings. To be fair, even 6 or 7-year-olds would often rather be at home on their tablets. So, let them help you arrange their perfect day out. Sit together and look at some great family days out online and try to find something that everyone will enjoy. Encourage them to think of not only their needs but of those of the rest of the group, especially any younger children.

A visit to an aquarium such as SeaQuest can be the perfect solution. Younger children and even babies can enjoy watching the colourful fish swimming around, and older kids and adults can make the most of the interactive displays and learning opportunities. Other great options include farms, zoos and fun, family-friendly museums.

Give Older Children Responsibility

Another way to keep older children happy on a family day out is by making them feel needed and appreciated. Give them a job, such as looking after the map and checking things off your to-do list and tell them how important this is and that they are doing you a huge favor. Keep an eye on their progress and encourage and praise them throughout the day. Tell them that everyone is having a much better day because of their help.

Get an Early Night

The last thing you want on the morning of your big day out is tired and agitated kids or adults for that matter. If the children know that something fun is happening the next day they might find it hard to sleep if they are excited. So, try to keep their routine normal and put them to bed a little earlier. Then, get some rest yourself. Big family days out can be long and tiring, so make sure you are starting on top form.

Give Yourself Plenty of Time

Get up a little early than usual too to give yourself plenty of time to make sure you’ve got everything you need for the day. Then, leave early enough that you aren’t having to rush whether you’re driving or using public transport. Make sure you’ve got enough time for an emergency stop.

Plan Activities for the Journey

You don’t want to be stressed out before you arrive. But children can be hard to entertain on a long journey. So, plan some activities. Think of some games you can play together and take a few small books or toys. You could even let them take their tablets or other devices just for the journey if it keeps everyone happy.

Pack Snacks

Even if the journey is short, you may find you have to spend some of your days in queues or waiting for shows. Kids tend not to be very good at waiting, so healthy snacks are a must. Just make sure you also take a bag for rubbish and some baby wipes for sticky fingers.

Keep the Kids Safe

As a parent, your biggest fear on family days out is always that one of the children will get lost. Even when they start getting older, it’s something that worries us. Temporary ID tattoos with a parent’s name and contact number are a great idea to help keep them safe. You should also make sure they know your real name and that there is a landmark nearby they recognize if they need help.

Remember, it’s Their Day Out Too

It can be easy to get hung up on our children’s behavior, but on a day out it’s important to relax a little. Remember, it’s their day out too, they are excited and might be a little louder than usual. It’s ok to let things slide a little for the good of the day.

Know When to Give Up

However, sometimes, it can seem like everything is against you. The weather is awful; things are closed, the car stops working, your picnic gets ruined or worse. Things happen. Instead of trying to force everyone to have a good time sometimes it’s ok to give it up, go home and watch a DVD together. There’ll be other days.

Little stabs of jealousy struck Cody as he stood at the corner and watched Josh and Sam cycle their latest acquisition around the neighbourhood park with such glee,

He envied how they always got the latest and best toys and momentarily, he felt sad and angry that poverty kept his mama from buying any of such things for him. He was tired of their scrounging for food, for hand-me-downs and their broken television.

From past experience, he knew not to ask them if he could join them because they would only laugh and make fun of him. Last time when they were flying a kite and he came closer to watch, Sam made fun of his ill-fitting clothes and oversized trainers and he had walked away red in the face and ashamed.

He really wanted to fit in and he was tired of feeling out of place, but what could a ten-year old do? Maybe if his dad hadn’t died, they wouldn’t be so poor with his mother juggling several jobs. He hoped mama was right in saying that things would get better some day.

I would like to thank all the recent follows to my blog. It’s a pleasure to connect and share this space with you. I host monthly blog parties where you get to network with other bloggers.

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So, how are you investing in yourself?

I have a second blog abode just in case you want to check it out.

This month I am promoting Nutstrok’s new book as my own little way of supporting other authors. Just click on the image or check my sidebar.

The only phrase I find apt to use in describing this book is ‘it’s pure gold.’ Once I dug into the first chapter from England to Jamestown – the story of Andrew and Molly, I got hooked and didn’t stop till I finished it.

Linda paints a vivid, compelling story that I was transported back into time and could picture the voyage, the misery and the tough as leather lifestyle of these pioneers. Yet, it’s filled with verve, the strength of body and mind, resilience and inspiration.

A beautiful series that strongly reminds me of Janette Oke’s books which I absolutely adore.

If only it’s possible to go around the world in one day, yours truly would be the first to hop on that ride. Anyhow, we can simulate it by visiting the Global Village in Dubailand.

The Global Village Dubailand Dubai is a one of it’s kind in the region. It’s the world’s largest leisure, tourism, and entertainment project and receives well over 5 million visitors in a period of 150+ days. Due to the extremely hot weather in the Middle East, it operates only from November to April when the temperature is humane.

So far, the village houses 30 pavilions representing more than 75 countries in the World, from Africa to North America. The fact is that one can’t adequately cover every part of this theme village in a day. It measures 17,200,000 sq ft / 1,600,000 m2 and there’s so much to see, with cultural shows, concerts, pavilion shows, sales and all manners of entertainment happening at every corner and the huge crowd on all sides.

I managed to catch the close of the village for the year which was last weekend, on the 8th of April. It was worth the visit though I couldn’t cover it all and I went home with sore but happy feet 😉

Someone please grab the tail of time and tie it to the end of a strong tree.

Phew! It’s a week already. Immersed between a lot of this and that and reading for an exam that’s taking place today – maybe I will be in the exam hall sweating my French as you read this – this echo will be sweet and brief.

Nonetheless, in the speed of time, I still found time to celebrate my birthday at my favourite Italian place. I had a craving for yummy pasta and the children wanted pizza. Their Ravioli Al Porcini, Capricciosa and Valtellinese pizza are just so fresh and delicious.

It’s a good thing we ate after the jumping and not before ‘cos I was just stuffed.

I took a short video of the beautiful burst of colours of the water display 🙂

For several weeks, I’ve not shared photos taken for Echoes because I was initially contemplating letting the project fizzle out and start another photo project but I realized that I love taking photos of this and that around me and simply can’t stop shooting. I literally go everywhere with my camera and these past weeks I took loads of photos.

Over the holiday two dear friends and their family visited Dubai from Chicago and it was simply a wonderful time and they were happy to be away from Chicago cold for 10 days 🙂

One of the places we went to is the theme park – IMG worlds of adventure – where the children went on dizzying rides (for me) and they had fun. A lot of eating happened during this vacation and I’ve refused to give my scale the delight of making a mockery of me 😉

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A wordsmith with a vivid imagination, an eager mind and a burning desire to carve out tales. As I journey with my muse to that land of all possibilities and self discovery, I hope my personal evolution will serve as a beacon of inspiration for anyone who chooses to stop by.